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Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
NBA finals go to game seven for first time since 2016 as Indiana Pacers beat Oklahoma City Thunder
Fuelled by defence, depth and defiance, the Indiana Pacers stormed to a 108-91 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, levelling the NBA finals at three games apiece and setting up a decisive Game 7 in Oklahoma City. Obi Toppin came off the bench to score 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 points with four assists and Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds as Indiana bounced back from consecutive losses. Tyrese Haliburton, cleared to play only hours before tipoff due to a strained right calf, delivered 14 points, five assists and two steals in 22 high-impact minutes. 'We just wanted to protect our court,' Haliburton said. 'We didn't want to see those guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall, we just responded. So many different guys chipped in. It was a whole team effort. Really proud of this group.' Indiana missed their first eight shots and quickly fell behind 10-2. But the Pacers flipped the game with a relentless two-way surge that spanned the second and third quarters. They outscored the Thunder 68-32 in that stretch and led by as many as 31 points early in the fourth. It was their first double-digit win of the series and the Thunder's second-largest deficit of the season. READ MORE this angle of Pascal Siakam's poster dunk is incredible. — Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) The Pacers dominated across the box score. They forced 21 turnovers – including eight by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – and turned those into 19 points. They held the Thunder to just 8-for-30 (26.7 per cent) from beyond the arc, outrebounded them 46-41, and led in fast-break points 22-11. TJ McConnell stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals, while Ben Sheppard added five points, five boards and a made three-pointer off the bench. Haliburton, who had finished with four points in Game 5, helped ignite a 30-9 run late in the second quarter with two threes, a steal and an assist to Siakam for a transition dunk. He also buried a deep three late in the first quarter to put Indiana up 24-17, their first real cushion of the night. Siakam followed up his dunk with an 18-foot jumper just before the halftime buzzer, giving Indiana a 64-42 lead. Gilgeous-Alexander, the newly minted Most Valuable Player, finished with a quiet 21 points. Jalen Williams, who erupted for 40 points in Game 5, was held to 16 on Thursday. The Thunder's usual defensive disruptiveness was absent and coach Mark Daigneault pulled his starters at the start of the fourth quarter. Now the series shifts to a winner-take-all Game 7 in Oklahoma City on Sunday night, marking the first time the NBA finals has gone the distance since 2016. Home teams are 15-4 in such games, though the Thunder franchise suffered one of those rare defeats as the Seattle Supersonics in 1978. – Guardian
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former UD Flyer Obi Toppin sparks Pacers to help force Game 7 in NBA Finals
A former University of Dayton men's basketball star helped the Indiana Pacers force a Game 7 in the 2025 NBA Finals. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Obi Toppin came off the bench to score a team-high 20 points in the Pacers' 108-91 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Advertisement He was one of six Indiana players in double figures. Toppin made 6-12 shots, including 4-7 from three-point range in 23 minutes of action. TRENDING STORIES: OKC jumped out to a 10-2 lead, but Indiana went on an 11-2 run to take a 13-12 advantage. The Pacers never looked back as they built their largest lead to 31 points, 93-62, in the fourth quarter. Andrew Nembhard added 17 points while Pascal Siakam had 16. Indiana plays at Oklahoma City Sunday night. This will be the first Game 7 of the NBA Finals since 2016. The Associated Press contributed to this story. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
NBA Finals odds: Thunder open as big Game 7 favorites despite ugly Game 6 loss to Pacers
Can the Thunder produce another Game 7 blowout after getting blown out themselves in Game 6? Oklahoma City opened up as an 8.5-point favorite at BetMGM ahead of Sunday's deciding NBA Finals game. The Indiana Pacers emphatically forced Game 7 on Thursday night with a 108-91 win that wasn't as close as the final score indicated. Indiana went on a monster run to take a 22-point lead at halftime and extended the lead to 30 before the start of the fourth quarter. Advertisement The Pacers did all that after starting 0-of-8 from the field. The Thunder had a quick 10-2 lead and trailed 34-33 during the second quarter. The score at halftime was 64-42. Five Pacers scored in double figures as Obi Toppin had 20 points off the bench and was 4-of-7 from behind the 3-point line. This is Indiana's first seven-game series of the playoffs and the second for the Thunder. Oklahoma City went to seven games in the second round with Denver and the Finals have looked a lot like that Denver series. The Nuggets swiped Game 1 in OKC after the Thunder were in control for much of the game before Oklahoma City had a big bounce back in Game 2. Denver then won Game 3 before the Thunder won Game 4 and Game 5 and lost convincingly on the road in Game 6. Advertisement Sound familiar? The Pacers got their first lead of the game in Game 1 on Tyrese Haliburton's game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds left. The Thunder won Game 2 before losing Game 3. Then the Thunder seized control late in Game 4 to tie the series and won Game 5 ahead of last night's big Pacers win. The Thunder have been favored in all seven games so far this series after they were big favorites to win in five games. OKC has covered the spread in all three of its wins and its two victories at home have both been by double-digits. If you think Indiana is going to score the series win, avoiding the spread and going straight to the moneyline is the play. The Pacers are +290 to win Game 7 while the Thunder are -375.
Zawya
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Zawya
2025 National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals Presented by YouTube TV: Indiana Pacers defeat Oklahoma City Thunder, 108-91 (Recap)
The Indiana Pacers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 108-91, in Game 6 of the 2025 NBA Finals ( Pascal Siakam (Cameroon) led the Pacers with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Obi Toppin finished with 20 points (4 3PM), 6 rebounds, and 2 steals in the victory. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander totaled 21 points and 4 rebounds for the Thunder in the loss. The best-of-seven NBA Finals series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers is tied, 3-3. Game 7 will take place on Sunday, June 22 at 8:00 p.m. ET (Monday, June 23 at 2 a.m. CAT) on ESPN, Canal+ and NBA League Pass live from Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of National Basketball Association (NBA).
CTV News
6 hours ago
- Sport
- CTV News
Pacers roll past Thunder 108-91 to send the NBA Finals to a deciding Game 7
Indiana Pacers guard Ben Sheppard (26) and forward Obi Toppin (1) celebrate during the second half of Game 6 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Thursday, June 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) INDIANAPOLIS -- Season on the line, the Indiana Pacers did what they've done time and time again. They bucked the odds. And the NBA Finals are going to an ultimate game. Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 and the Pacers forced a winner-take-all Game 7 by rolling past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 on Thursday night. The first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016 is Sunday night in Oklahoma City. 'The ultimate game,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Tyrese Haliburton -- playing through a strained calf -- scored 14 points. The Pacers started slowly and then turned things into a blowout. Game 6 was a microcosm of Indiana's season in a way. The Pacers started the regular season with 15 losses in 25 games, have had five comebacks from 15 or more down to win games in these playoffs, and they're one win from a title. 'We just wanted to protect home court,' Haliburton said. 'We didn't want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall and we just responded. ... Total team effort.' TJ McConnell, the spark off the bench again, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Indiana. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for the Thunder, who pulled their starters after getting down by 30 going into the fourth. Jalen Williams added 16. 'Credit Indiana,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'They earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. They went out there and attacked the game.' Good news for the Thunder: home teams are 15-4 in finals Game 7s. Bad news for the Thunder: Cleveland won at Golden State in the most recent of those and one of the three other home-team losses was in 1978 -- by Seattle, the franchise that would move to Oklahoma City three decades later. Indiana missed its first eight shots and got down 10-2. The arena, roaring just a few minutes before at the start, quieted quickly. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, sitting courtside in a Jalen Rose Pacers jersey, was pacing, kneeling, generally acting more nervous than he ever seemed as a player. No need. After the slow start, the Pacers outscored the Thunder 68-32 over the next 24 minutes. An Indiana team that hadn't led by more than 10 points at any time in the first five games -- and that double-digit lead was brief -- led by 28 early in the third quarter. The margin eventually got to 31, which was Oklahoma City's second-biggest deficit of the season. The worst also came in these playoffs: a 45-point hole against Minnesota in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder came back to win that series, obviously, and now will need that bounce-back ability one more time. 'Obviously, it was a very poor performance by us,' Daigneault said. The Thunder, desperate for a spark, put Alex Caruso in the starting lineup in place of Isaiah Hartenstein to open the second half. There was no spark. In fact, there was nothing whatsoever -- neither team scored in the first 3:53 after halftime, the sides combining to miss their first 13 shots of the third quarter. And the outcome was never in doubt. By Tim Reynolds
